


Anchor

by roseandheather



Series: Bittersweet And Strange [34]
Category: Inspector Lynley Mysteries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-16
Updated: 2011-11-16
Packaged: 2017-10-26 03:33:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/278209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseandheather/pseuds/roseandheather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All they have is each other. Character death (not either of them). Lynley/Havers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anchor

She gets the call from Judith one Thursday night, when Tommy’s at the pub with some old mate from Oxford and she’s settling down for a girl’s night with the cat, _Mamma Mia!_ and a pint of ice cream.

“Barbara…” Judith’s so distraught she can barely get the words out. “It’s Mother. She…  took a fall from Cinnamon’s back, and she… she didn’t make it, Barbara. I’ve – I’ve already told Tommy. I told him to stay where he was, that you were coming, but…”

Barbara _runs._

She finds him two blocks away from the Hound and Hare, damp from London rain with devastation written all over his face. With a screech of tyres she parallel parks on the street – she doesn’t give a damn, she outranks any traffic cop out there – and spills onto the sidewalk.

He looks up just long enough to recognize her through pain-dulled eyes, and then he’s reaching out to yank her into his arms and holding on to her as though she’s the only thing keeping his world from falling apart.

The hideously ironic thing? She _is_.

They sink to the cold cement of the sidewalk, clinging fiercely, as their tears mingle with the rain.


End file.
